Virginia Baptist Education Society

At the 1830 annual meeting of the BGAV, which drew white Baptist leaders from across the state to Richmond’s Second Baptist Church, two young and successful ministers, James B. Taylor and Jeremiah Bell Jeter (1802-1880), organized like-minded colleagues in an effort to gain support for a formal system of ministerial education. Some voiced concern at the financial risk the effort posed, since the endeavor’s success would depend on individual Baptists providing sustained funding. Others recommended concentrating support around Columbian College, the existing Baptist institution in Washington, D.C. Despite the opposition among some leaders, the Virginia Baptist Education Society was successfully formed to advance the development of a seminary in the state. Lacking the infrastructure and funding for a formal institution, the society devised a temporary solution in which educated ministers would board small groups of students in their homes, providing both instruction and mentoring.